Alias, one of our distributors in Italy has just finished a great video which underlines the many advantages of Syneto Storage. Click on the image below to view it.
Lastly, the Syneto Team wishes you a warm Happy Holidays!
As winter is fast approaching, Syneto engineers have prepared a new release of the Syneto Storage OS that is packed with new features and fixes. Below you can see the new additions and improvements present in this latest version:
After a faulty disk is replaces, the degraded disk pool can be cleared directly form the web interface.
The number of of backups kept on remote machine is shown on the backups page.
The NTP server is synchronized and configured with the Active Directory domain controller before joining Active Directory.
Sharing a CIFS folder with everybody is now easier and faster thanks to the addition of a “Public access” option.
Information about when the last backup has been replicated successfully has been added.
A bunch of bug fixes that adress some existing quirks within the OS have also received theu due attention. Here’s a list of what’s been fixed:
You can experience the flexibility and agility that Syneto Storage brings to your datacenter by trying it out. You can download it free of charge for small datacenter environments or evaluation purposes. The available version is a fully functioning sample of the software that manages up to 1TB of disk space.
With the launch of vSphere 5, there is a lot of buzz around virtualized server architectures. Let’s take a look at what Syneto’s Unified Storage does to make virtualization efficient and cost-effective. Syneto offers a range of cost-effective Unified Storage solutions perfect for virtualization and disaster recovery.
Both NFS (NAS) and iSCSI protocols are supported. Below we have described the storage efficiency features and virtualization advantages that make Syneto Storage so good at this job.
A virtualization scenario in Legacy Storage
Fig.1 Virtualization of the most critical Servers occurs in ESX1. With the addition of other virtual machines, ESX2 and ESX3, the backup server is overwhelmed.
A virtualization scenario with Syneto Storage
Fig.2 With the VM’s located on the storage itself, an infinite number of backups are possible and space efficient
Backups (Snapshots) in the virtual enviroment
Backing up a legacy virtual environment can be very taxing on storage space. Backups for them grow continuously and incrementally and are not usually kept for long periods of time.
Legacy backpus while keeping memory consistency:
Syneto & the magic of copy on write
Copy-on-write (COW) is a transactional model in which data blocks that contain used data are never overwritten. The advantage of Cow is that you can keep old versions of data blocks without incurring a huge space penalty. Also, the system is very fast thanks to the ZFS filesystem. Backups are created quikly, old blocks are only labeled because the data is already in place.
The section below contains a graphic illustration of how data is handled in Backups with ZFS copy-on-write:
Fig.5 Initial Filesystem
Fig.6 The filesystem is backed-up
Fig.7 No data is written in Data3 (thanks to COW)
Fig.8 Data2 is deleted
Fig.9All backups are deleted
Backups (Snapshots) on Syneto Unified Storage
Syneto Storage allows you to make Backups (Snapshots) which can be maintained for an unlimited amount of time in two ways:
First – while keeping memory consistency
1. Make a vmware backup
2. Make a storage backup
3. Delete the vmware snapshot
Second – without keeping memory consistency
Custom backup schedule for each datastore with one or more backups on the storage
Below, Fig.10 and Fig.11, you can see regular and automatic backups on the interface:
Another key element is the notifications. Syneto Storage is equipped with a monitoring system that watches every single datasore and the events on it.
If Something goes wrong it will quikly contact a list of users so that the issue can be resolved in a timely fashion.
Optimization with reduplication and data compression
Deduplication: only one copy of a virtual machine is written on the storage when a template is used by multiple machines.
In-line Deduplication: All data is deduplicated as it is written on the storage
Compression: offers almost the same gains as deduplication in terms of space and uses less resources (RAM and processor)
You can experience the flexibility and agility that Syneto Storage brings to your datacenter by trying it out. You can download it free of charge for small datacenter environments or evaluation purposes. The available version is a fully functioning sample of the software that manages up to 1TB of disk space.
We are always in search of new ways to make Syneto products faster, easier to use and more reliable so our customers enjoy a powerful product that will offer great quality for their investment. Lately, our engineers have been working hard on fixing a few bugs and quirks in the UTM platform. The result: UTM version 1.4.2. Below are just a few of the fixes included in this version. We highly encourage you to update to this latest version to benefit from these improvements.
Fixes:
• DNS cache refreshes correctly when nameservers change
• IP aliases with a /32 netmask are now accepted
• Correctly align elements in tables (NAT, filters)
• Prevent a browser caching issue requiring admin. to clear the cache after an upgrade
• Optimize memory usage when antivirus scanning is not enabled
• Downloading and installing updates while under heavy load no longer blocks UTM
• Dashboard graphics now show properly in Internet Explorer
• Attempting to set an empty password for ssh access is no longer permitted
• Web category statistics no longer stop updating in certain conditions
• Update antivirus more reliably
• Editing an alias IP address will now properly rename the network and interface definition
• Enabling HTTP proxy on a bridge interface now works properly
• Default system update URL is now set correctly
For more information and details on the Unified Threat Management platform, visit our website or demo the product.
Syneto, TEP, UTM
While everybody was busy having fun during the holidays, the Syneto Storage team has been putting in extra hours, so that the global balance of things remains unaltered. We have created a brand new release (2.4) that focuses on improving one area that our customers find very important: backup management.
To improve the user experience, we operated an important change: We have removed the old terminology referring to snapshots and, starting with this release, we will be calling them backups instead. We hope a more common term will help reduce the confusion related to the feature.
Read more about the new features in the following sections.
We added a new top-level page where you can easily see all the defined backups and their status. Also, you can define the hosts that can backup to a storage.
Until this version, configuring a backup (snapshot) for your data was error prone and quite difficult in some cases. We listened to our customers and improved many aspects:
Starting with this version, whenever we release a software update, you will see a notification in the interface. This can be disabled from the settings page. By clicking the link, you will be taken to a page where you can read the release notes and install the new version.
If configured, you can also receive via email a notification regarding the new version.
Via the Settings page, you can now configure two percentual thresholds. When the space used on a folder or virtual disk will go beyond these values, you will be notified by email. This way, you can take appropriate actions before space occupation becomes a problem.
Read the release notes and update your machine. If you don’t have a Syneto Storage yet, download a free version that manages up to 1TB of space.
Release, StorageA public version of the Syneto Unified Storage software is currently available for download on our website. You can download it free of charge for small datacenter environments or evaluation purposes. The available version is a fully functioning sample of the software that manages up to 1TB of disk space.
The installation sequence is quick and easy and you can implement it either by using the provided DVD image or the USB one. Detailed installation instruction are available here. For a broader perspective, check out the dedicated download page below and the release notes.
Documentation, Storage, Syneto
Our partner in the fight against internet threats, Commtouch, has just released their latest in-depth report that covers Web threats, phishing, malware, and spam. Q2 2011 has witnessed a vast downgrade in spam levels due to a shift from botnet flavored spam activity to low-level compromised accounts. Both law enforcement and IP-based blocking techniques have proven highly effective this quarter, with spammers actively trying to avoid these traps. They are employing a combination of malware and phishing to compromise legitimate accounts and then use these accounts to send low-volume spam outbreaks.
Facebook is once again a key battleground as more people are socially integrated on-line, making them a far easier target. Amongst the preferred techniques is malware that tricks users by promising applications that reveal who was viewing their profiles as well as Osama Bin Laden death videos.
Q2 2011 also witnessed:
The highlights:
To get the full picture on the war against internet threats download the report and take a look at Syneto’s Security Center.
Syneto offers the perfect weapon to fight the ever expanding range of internet threats, Total Email Protection, so be sure to take a look.
1. New SCSI initiator groups,targets and target group management
Configuring your storage machine to grant access in iSCSI to any iSCSI initiators (ESX machines, virtual machines or any other system capable of being an iSCSI initiator) is now done from iSCSI & Fiber channel page. To allow a new ISCSI initiator to connect to your storage just simply add it in a new or existing group by clicking the ‘New initiator’ button.
To move an ISCSI initiator from one group to another just click on the blue arrow corresponding to the initiator and simply drag and drop the initiator on top of the desired group.
Have you wondered how you can make all your ISCSI targets to be viewed as single one to enable multipathing? You can now organize your local targets in groups in the same way you can organize the connecting initiators. By clicking on the right side panel the view for managing targets and their groups will be displayed. Clicking ‘New target’ button will allow you to define a new target, assign it to a group. Target identifier can be provided or you can select the ‘autogenerate’ option so the system will generate it for you.
You can view information (login date, identifier, group) about all the initiators currently connected to a target by clicking the sessions section on a target.
2. Fiber channel cards management
If your storage has a fiber channel card attached in the first section of the iSCSI & Fiber channel page you can now easily configure all your fiber channel ports to be either an initiator or a target. Once a port is set as target it will be displayed in the targets managing section. The fiber channel license is required to be able to access this feature.
3. New shares section
Tired of searching through all the Folders & Vdisks to see all their shares? You don’t have to anymore. The new shares page will display all the available NFS, CIFS and iSCSI/Fiber Channel shares for Folders or Vdisks. You can easily toggle on/off NFS, CIFS or iSCSI sharing globally for all of the available Folders and Vdisks.
And there is more …
Check out the release notes for more details.
UncategorizedThe new stable version 1.4.0 of Syneto UTM and TEP are now available.
The UTM comes with several new features like:
Several issues were fixed on both UTM & TEP products regarding High Availability, system update and more.
The UTM’s Web Content Filtering interface was redesigned for easier use and configuration.
The new Profiles page offers a simple overview of all the defined profiles allowing individual editing.
For each profile you can now define web access policies based on time intervals, URL categories and custom categories.
On the filter settings page, you have a new option to set a list of file extensions to be skipped.
And finally the Active Directory Integration feature provides an easier association between users, groups, and web access policies.
With all these new features now available, we invite you to upgrade to this latest 1.4.0 version and read on at our knowledge base and release notes for more details.
TEP, UTMIn the last months we started adopting a new medium for interacting with our customers – the webinar – which offers everyone the chance to watch what happened even though they could not participate.
Last week our CEO, Marco Lorenzi, held one (in italian) describing the Syneto Storage platform and technologies.
We are happy to offer a free live recording at http://www.syneto.net/webinars/20110518-storage-zfs.mp4 (if you have problems viewing this in your browser, you can download and open it with VLC player)
If you find it interesting, or have additional questions, please let us know in the comments.
Events, Storage